As CBS 2’s John Slattery reported, Marcell Dockery, 16, claimed through his attorney at an arraignment Thursday that he did not set the fire at all and a prior confession was coerced.

Members of his family wept in the courtroom as Dockery was arraigned on second-degree murder and assault charges Thursday in Brooklyn, WCBS 880’s Irene Cornell reported. He was also charged in connection with an earlier unrelated robbery, 1010 WINS’ Juliet Papa reported.

Also present were the parents of Officer Dennis Guerra, 38, who was killed in the fire. They declined speak about their son’s alleged killer.

Rodriguez, 36, remains in critical but stable condition. She is a single mother of four kids and a four-year veteran of the NYPD Housing Bureau.

Standing together with Guerra’s parents in the courtroom Thursday was a wall of blue. The police officers in the room dismissed the claim that the confession was coerced.

“He’s a murderer,” said Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch. “He’s entitled to a hired gun to make excuses for him. He confessed. He was bored and now he must pay the piper.”

Lynch also released a statement, calling Dockery a dangerous person who must suffer consequences.

“Marcell Dockery disregarded the safety of those who lived in that apartment house and of those who would respond to the fire that he set which killed a fine, heroic police officer and seriously injured a second,” Lynch said in the statement. “His indifference to the well being of others makes him a danger to society and he must be held accountable for his criminal actions and punished for the irreversible loss to the families of these two police officers.”

Defense lawyers claimed Dockery tried to put out the blaze and banged on neighbors’ doors hoping to alert them.

Dockery, who is also charged with arson, assault and reckless endangerment, faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted of killing Guerra.

Dockery has a prior arrest for lighting a fire. The unrelated robbery and larceny charges stemmed from a separate case in which police said he used a razor in the mugging of a 60-year-old neighbor.

What is clear, according to Dockery’s attorney, is that a defense claiming a false confession will go

In the wake of Guerra’s death, NYPD officials changed protocols for officers responding to fires.\

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